Taxes are DONE for another year

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

swirt

Forum founder. Former Owner.
Joined
May 17, 2008
Messages
3,210
Reaction score
1
Always a good feeling when the taxes are done.
One of the numbers I track each year is the cost of one couple for one night. This includes all expenses like heat, food, electricity, mileage to get the food, advertising and everything else we deduct. This does not include the mortgage or any lasting purchases that are being ammortized.
2005 - $39.76 per couple per night
2006 - $42.88 per couple per night
2007 - $44.03 per couple per night
2008 - $45.01 per couple per night
Anyone else tracking similar numbers?
 
Ugh, I've barely started.
And oh, wouldn't that be a great number for me to sit down and figure out in my spare time! Maybe I will... (or at least, the food costs...)
=)
Kk.
 
You are a better man than most of us. I confess I do not do that, and it makes blood shoot out my eyes to even begin to work it out. I have it all on my reports - but I don't know how you do it for that cost. Food, flowers, soap, extras would double that figure here.
Would you care to share the breakdown or is that asking too much? May I request specific categories without the breakdown? You didn't mention laundry/cleaning and do you include the linens too? Or just the cost to use what you have as is?
I think you mentioned this like 2 years ago and I went into migraine or vomiting spasms. LOL Mainly because we NEED to know. There goes that temple vein again...bye
 
Other things I have to ask about but don't see listed, maybe they are under "everything else":
Wi Fi and Cable for rooms (for high speed internet)
Ancilary items like soaps, shampoos, little bathroom items - tp, kleenix, plastic cups, turn down chocolates, in room flowers,
24 ferns for the porch (these are things I would not buy for myself),
bottled water, magazines for guests (I know some up this for the guests for their area), etc etc
 
I think that's my food bill alone. I don't think we've gotten it down to that specific level, but it's good to know that info should we be trying to cut corners somewhere. Obviously, with numbers like yours, it's NOT on the guest side that corners would need to be cut.
We've talked about a timer on the gas stoves in the guest rooms, tho. Running them all night or all day is not necessary for the ambiance of the room. And, because they have not thermostats, they get the rooms up to 80, enough to melt the snow away from the side of the house!
 
Other things I have to ask about but don't see listed, maybe they are under "everything else":
Wi Fi and Cable for rooms (for high speed internet)
Ancilary items like soaps, shampoos, little bathroom items - tp, kleenix, plastic cups, turn down chocolates, in room flowers,
24 ferns for the porch (these are things I would not buy for myself),
bottled water, magazines for guests (I know some up this for the guests for their area), etc etc.
Soaps, shampoo, tp kleenex... yes.
Linens and towels yes. Washing detergent yes.
Ferns...we're in the forrest..we don't pay for ferns ;)
Router and equipment yes, cable TV yes. High speed internet, no (that is paid though another line of work ;)
Mulch for the path, yes. Bottled water, magazines...no we don't provide it
 
Why did it go down two years and then back up?.
Hard to say specifically. The going back up for 2008 I am sure was because of the increased prices of groceries. I think it actually would have been higher but was offset by us closing a month early for the arrival of my son. The end of Oct and Nov are months that would have been heavy propane use for heat of the rooms. Shutting cabins down completely is an option that most B&B's (with rooms inside) don't have. But it saved us quite a bit this year.
 
Why did it go down two years and then back up?.
Hard to say specifically. The going back up for 2008 I am sure was because of the increased prices of groceries. I think it actually would have been higher but was offset by us closing a month early for the arrival of my son. The end of Oct and Nov are months that would have been heavy propane use for heat of the rooms. Shutting cabins down completely is an option that most B&B's (with rooms inside) don't have. But it saved us quite a bit this year.
.
I'm still at a loss (and I mean that anyway it is possible to take it biz-wise!) as to how those numbers can be so low. I'm not going to mention what a quick calculation brought my numbers out to be, but let's just say 'quite a bit more'. And we're not big on breakfast being elaborate or anything, but just the non-food consumables can be out of this world in price.
OK, how about this...JUST the marketing (and that's EVERY little bit of marketing) is about what your total is.
 
I spend that probably on food alone for 2 people/night! There is no way that is the cost of doing business here & I have no hired help except a guy that I pay $20-$40/every 2 weeks now and then weekly for the yards. (I lowered that from $100/week.)
I need a new business....blood is shooting out of my eyes too!
confused_smile.gif
 
I spend that probably on food alone for 2 people/night! There is no way that is the cost of doing business here & I have no hired help except a guy that I pay $20-$40/every 2 weeks now and then weekly for the yards. (I lowered that from $100/week.)
I need a new business....blood is shooting out of my eyes too!
confused_smile.gif
.
Sorry, all these bleeding eyes made me go check the formula again and I realized I divided by the number of rooms twice.
embaressed_smile.gif
The figures in the original post have been updated. Hopefully this will stop the ocular hemoraging. Sorry for the panic. ;)
 
I spend that probably on food alone for 2 people/night! There is no way that is the cost of doing business here & I have no hired help except a guy that I pay $20-$40/every 2 weeks now and then weekly for the yards. (I lowered that from $100/week.)
I need a new business....blood is shooting out of my eyes too!
confused_smile.gif
.
Sorry, all these bleeding eyes made me go check the formula again and I realized I divided by the number of rooms twice.
embaressed_smile.gif
The figures in the original post have been updated. Hopefully this will stop the ocular hemoraging. Sorry for the panic. ;)
.
Wow, still impressive if those are the correct figures. I'm afraid to calculate ours........very afraid.
 
I spend that probably on food alone for 2 people/night! There is no way that is the cost of doing business here & I have no hired help except a guy that I pay $20-$40/every 2 weeks now and then weekly for the yards. (I lowered that from $100/week.)
I need a new business....blood is shooting out of my eyes too!
confused_smile.gif
.
Sorry, all these bleeding eyes made me go check the formula again and I realized I divided by the number of rooms twice.
embaressed_smile.gif
The figures in the original post have been updated. Hopefully this will stop the ocular hemoraging. Sorry for the panic. ;)
.
Thank you! Now I don't feel so bad.
 
I'll have to figure that out but I'm afraid to! It will be a good exercise for us to see the actual figures...! Thanks for posting so I have something to compare to.
Riki
 
I spend that probably on food alone for 2 people/night! There is no way that is the cost of doing business here & I have no hired help except a guy that I pay $20-$40/every 2 weeks now and then weekly for the yards. (I lowered that from $100/week.)
I need a new business....blood is shooting out of my eyes too!
confused_smile.gif
.
Sorry, all these bleeding eyes made me go check the formula again and I realized I divided by the number of rooms twice.
embaressed_smile.gif
The figures in the original post have been updated. Hopefully this will stop the ocular hemoraging. Sorry for the panic. ;)
.
swirt said:
Sorry, all these bleeding eyes made me go check the formula again and I realized I divided by the number of rooms twice.
embaressed_smile.gif
The figures in the original post have been updated. Hopefully this will stop the ocular hemoraging. Sorry for the panic. ;)
My gums were turning white. Now I can breathe, with those numbers.
 
Thanks for sharing these numbers, swirt. I'm nearly done prepping my taxes and will see what kind of ratio I get for costs/room-night.
Do you also figure out the fixed expenses and the variable expenses separately? That's what I want to do once I finish my tax prep.
 
WOW..thats better... I was beginning to wonder how you stayed in business:) My problem is...I just finished our taxes and I owe even more money now than when I was running the B & B. This has got to stop. I am just working to pay the IRS...can't have that!
 
WOW..thats better... I was beginning to wonder how you stayed in business:) My problem is...I just finished our taxes and I owe even more money now than when I was running the B & B. This has got to stop. I am just working to pay the IRS...can't have that!.
catlady said:
My problem is...I just finished our taxes and I owe even more money now than when I was running the B & B.
Isn't that why you had the B&B? OK... maybe not why YOU had it, but a reason why many others have it.
=)
Kk.
 
Back
Top